Friday, January 2, 2015

Bayerische Motoren
Werke AG (BMW) is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing
company founded in 1916. Headquartered in
Munich, Bavaria, it also owns and produces Mini cars, and is the parent company
of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Its new variant
‘BMW i3’ [previously Mega City Vehicle
(MCV)], is a five-door urban electric car, its first zero emissions
mass-produced vehicle due to its electric powertrain. BMW is the first company
to launch a volume production vehicle on the market featuring carbon-fiber
reinforced plastic to improve the vehicle's energy consumption. According to the manufacturer, BMW i stands for a visionary automobile and a
new understanding of premium mobility characterised by a consistent alignment
towards sustainability.

Cars
look attractive and cruise on roads – one would envy people sitting on
beautiful cars, grazing their way on the roads – driving looks simple. For a learner, one must be familiar with the
car controls and functions. Elementary,
they might say – ABC pedals - turn on
the ignition, sit erect, press the clutch pedal, move the gear gently, release
the clutch smoothly and accelerate slowly.
The vehicle revs and moves around nicely – reads simple - those of us, who drive know well, how
difficult it was initially.

At a
time when one feels to have acquired some level of mastery in steering control
and navigation, parking is a task.
Parking the vehicle near a kerb and reversing a vehicle require special
skills – a small error of judgment can cause some damage to one’s prized
possession. In high-end models, there are
special aides like parking sensors – with modern gadgets, in some luxury cars,
there are automated parking utilities where one can relax, get guided by the
instructions to have the vehicle parked properly. A combination of the cars sensors and the
back up camera allows the onboard computer to adjust the angle of traction and
speed depending on the proximity of nearby vehicles. Once the car is brought
into position, the Intelligent Park Assist System will inform the driver that
the parking operation has been executed successfully, and that you are free to
take over control or kill the engine and simply walk out.

There
are malls, multiplexes and commercial complexes, where there will be valets,
who take over the vehicle and take care of the parking – here is something on
automated car parking – technology at its best !...

Munich-based BMW
has unveiled technology that can park your car - It uses four lasers on the car
to create a virtual map of the car park.
There’s nothing worse than forgetting where you’ve parked your car in a
multi-storey car park. MailOnline
reports that the new feature of BMW
allows the car to park by itself and return to you at the touch of a
button. When a voice command is spoken
into a smartwatch, the car will leave its space and drive to the exit,
calculating the time it will take so that it arrives just as you get there. The
new technology, known as the Remote Valet Parking Assistant, is being tested on
Munich-based BMW’s i3 vehicle. Instead of GPS, the technology uses four laser
scanners on the car, which create a virtual map of the building, to navigate. When
arriving at the car park, the driver need only get out of the vehicle and
activate the feature. The car will then recognise the structural features of
the car park, and ‘equally reliably steers round any obstaces that appear
unexpectedly - such as incorrectly parked vehicles,’ according to BMW.

According
to its makers, it can even look for a parking spot and recognise which ones are
empty. The company hasn’t said what would happen if it doesn’t manage to find
one, though, such in a busy car park in London or New York. The technology is
being developed alongside other new features such as 360-degree collision avoidance.
This uses the laser scanners to record the environment and identify obstacles
such as columns or walls. The car will automatically find an empty space and
lock itself there. If the system detects
a collision is imminent, it brakes automatically.

BMW
also says the use of lasers over GPS is better, as the latter is ‘not at all
precise’ in multi-storey car parks. The system does not require specially
designed car parks; it can work in any pre-existing car park without any
additional infrastructure. When the driver comes back they speak into the watch
again to be picked up. Amazing technology indeed.